Page 75 of What did you do?

I grumbled as I punched the dirt next to me. None of this was working out like it should. I was too weak with Tarani and Eli. I flipped over on my belly and let out a shaky breath, letting my feet dangle over the edge a second before pushing myself into the pit. I clumsily slid and rolled to the bottom, nearly crushing Tarani’s lifeless fox form as I fell next to her.

“Wow,” I mumbled under my breath.

The bear was huge from up there, but huddled on the other end of the small space, he seemed absolutely giant. I had assumed he was a grizzly, but seeing his larger-than-normal body reminded me that I didn’t know a thing about the fae’s creatures beyond bits and pieces that I’d heard; it meant nothing that they looked like things I was familiar with. For all I knew, it could shoot fire out of its eyes.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Eli’s voice thundered down into the hole.

I looked up to see his handsome face leaning over the bright opening. “Tarani! What hap—” His eyes landed on the bear next to us.

“Of course you’d show up right after I drop myself down here!” I yelled at him. I ran my hands over Tarani’s fluffy body, checking for any damage that I might recognize.

“Is she?—”

“She’s okay, strong pulse. I think she just got knocked unconscious,” I replied, unable to stop myself from petting her soft, orange fur. Shehatedme and would probably try to murder me after she knew I had pet her like a dog.

So I rubbed her belly for good measure.

“What were you thinking? The pit could close any second! This isn’t the human realm anymore. It doesn’t matter if you killed a few incompetent fae for my mother. Youdon’thave any powers and are going to get us both killed being so reckless! Or did you already forget we are tied together? Probably forgot all about me again, as soon as you saw Mendax—who might I remind you, you couldn’t kill because you are as powerless as a human!” he screamed.

Deep down, I knew he was panicking at seeing both Tarani and I at the bottom of a pit that could close at any second, killing all three of us in a second, but his words sparked like a firecracker inside me. He had no idea what I’d managed without power.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice softening as he watched me take a step back to look around the pit.

“Getting out of here,” I replied flatly.

“I’m coming down. Move to the side by Tarani. I don’t want to anger the eval. It must be hurt, because there is no way it wouldn’t have killed you two already otherwise, especially you. I don’t know how you and I are both going to get out of this alive.” Eli glared at me. “Which means we both won’t.”

I had already lifted Tarani’s lean body and was in the process of draping her limp form around my neck, so I could grip her legs on either side of my chest.

Eval…what was difference between evals and grizzlies? I wondered.

“Stop. What are you doing?” Eli shouted. I could hear the frustration in his voice. He sounded like he was talking to a toddler who wouldn’t do what he asked.

Irritation created soft whorls of smoke that flowed off my arms.

The eval lifted its head and wiggled its large black nose to sniff at my smoke before it let out a growl so rumbly that it caused bits of loose dirt to drop from the sides.

Interesting. It didn’t seem to like the Smoke Slayer smoke.

“Caly!” Eli yelled.

I adjusted Tarani on my shoulders, stood to my full height, and locked eyes with the eval. His brown irises roamed over me, still inhaling the smoke that trickled off my arms and hands and tilting its head as if it was confused. The eval turned around and pushed its head against the dirt wall, leaving its large brown butt to face me.

Umm…okay.

Tarani was light enough. I could do this. Just like at the mall, where they had those yellow spiral wishing wells that I would drop my penny into and watch as it continued to circle around and around the bright plastic side, until it dropped down the bottom of the funnel, well, that’s what I was going to attempt. Only the opposite.

When an object moves in a circle, it must have an acceleration component perpendicular to its velocity. The magnitude of the acceleration increases, causing the speed to increase and decrease as you increase the span of the circle. Basically, I should be able to use centripetal force and runaround the interior walls, eventually getting to the top. But this would only work if I could go fast enough and gradually rise at a steady pace.

I heaved in a breath and ran diagonally, stepping hard against the wall just above the dirt floor and taking wide steps as I increased my speed. As I neared the eval, my steps faltered, and I began to fall, catching my balance just in time and landing in a crouch back on the floor where I had started. Was it too wide?

“I have to run right above you.Pleasedon’t hurt us,” I begged the eval.

This had to work. I said a small prayer that I wouldn’t mess up, which would not only startle the giant animal, probably causing it to lash out, but the fall alone could kill the both of us…the trio of us.

“Caly, stop!” Eli shouted.

I needed to be faster and not let running above the eval make me nervous. If I could create enough speed, the total magnitude of the normal force would increase. With a larger frictional force, I could get us out, running around the edges of the cone as it widened.

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